Wilhelm Unger

Wilhelm Unger (4 June 1904 – 19 December 1985) was a German writer, journalist and theatre critic.

He was also the younger brother of the writer and dramaturge Alfred H. Unger.

Life Wilhelm Unger was born in Hohensalza (today called Inowrocław), at that time a small industrial town in the Prussian Province of Posen which since 1945 has been in the centre of Poland. His father, Samuel Unger, was a Jewish physician originally from Cologne. His mother, Flora Unger, had been born in Russia. In 1907, when he was just 3, the family moved back to Cologne which is where Unger completed his schooling and an apprenticeship in publishing and the book trade. He then moved on to study Germanistics, Philosophy and Psychology at Cologne and nearby Bonn. Wilhelm Unger still had with him the manuscript entitled "Cosmic Psychology" which he had rescued when he fled Germany, intending to have it published in London, for which arrangements had already been made; but during the voyage the manuscript was confiscated by one of the British guards and thrown overboard. and the authorities slowly began to rethink their policy of locking up the political and racially selected refugees from Nazi Germany. After intervention on his behalf by PEN International Wilhelm Unger was released and shipped back from Australia. Following another eventful voyage, on his arrival in Liverpool on 7 December 1941, in his own words, "I received the news about Pearl Harbor. The Japanese/American war had begun ... That meant that the war would not be over any time soon".

It was not till 1956 that Wilhelm Unger returned to live in Cologne, where he worked for the feuilleton supplement of the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger (daily newspaper), also making contributions on WDR and on the international radio service Deutsche Welle, as national broadcasting in West Germany became increasingly focused on Cologne. He also wrote for the precursor to the Jüdische Allgemeine weekly news magazine.

Unger was a co-founder of the Cologne Association for Christian-Jewish Collaboration (1958) and of the Germania Judaica library (1959), together with Heinrich Böll and Paul Schallück.

He died in Cologne on 19 December 1985.

Output (selection)

Beethovens Vermächtnis, Sieger-Verlag, Köln, 1929. Taschen-Lexikon der Astrologie, Theodor Hoock Verlag, Köln, 1934. The Goethe-Year: 1749-1949, Maxson & Co., London 1952. Zur Weihe der wiederhergestellten Synagoge Roonstrasse und des jüdischen Kulturzentrums in Köln, Synagogen-Gemeinde, Köln 1959. Wofür ist das ein Zeichen? Auswahl aus veröffentlichten und unveröffentlichten Werken des Kritikers und Autors. Hrsg. von Meret Meyer. DuMont, Köln 1984.